Nutty Blueberry Pie

Last Sunday we celebrated Mother's Day in France. I must admit that being a mother now this celebration has totally a different connatation for me than it was before. Well I still of course offerred my gifts to my mother and to my mom-in-law but I never imagined how nice it was to be pampered and be offered gifts too on this day. Well I mean aside from my birthday it is great that we have this extra day of the year to feel love and important. As the weather was great we opted for a barbeque in the garden. We didn't want to spend too much time on the kitchen, so we just had some salad of beets, pink radishes, tomato cherries that were all freshly picked from the garden topped with some feta cheese and basil leaves for entrée. We threw some lamb meat and prawns on the grill and roasted them with rosemary as we chit chat. And lastly to finish off, we had this delicious nutty blueberry pie I prepared the night before. It was really a great lunch that lasted for more than four hours, well you know French lunches they last for hours and hours. I hope all the mom's out there had a great day too! Happy Mother's Day to all my friend bloggers!

PS. I am deeply touched by your warm messages :-) Thank you I miss you all too!

I am sending out a slice of this very original Nutty Blueberry Pie to the gorgeous Lore of Culinarty, the talented cook and photographer behind this delicious blogging event Original Recipes. Don't forget to check out the round-up of this event.


Nutty Blueberry Pie

Ingredients:
For the the short crust pie
(you can replace this with a crust pie ready to use if you don't have a lot of time)
125g/4oz plain flour
pinch of salt
55g/2oz butter cubed *
30-45ml/2-3 tbsp cold water

Put the flour and salt in a large bowl and add the cubes of butter. Use your fingertips to rub the butter into the flour until you have a mixture that resembles coarse breadcrumbs with no large lumps of butter remaining. Try to work quickly so that it does not become greasy. Using a knife, stir in just enough of the cold water to bind the dough together. Wrap the dough and chill for 10-15 minutes before using. Alternatively using a food processor, put the flour, butter and salt in the food processor and pulse until the fat is rubbed into the flour.With the motor running, gradually add the water through the funnel until the dough comes together. Only add enough water to bind it and then stop. Wrap the dough in clingfilm as before and chill for 10-15 minutes before using.

For the Filling:
1 jar of blueberry jam (about 12 oz)
250 g of fresh blueberries
50 g of chopped hazelnuts
50 g of chopped almonds
50 g of chopped macadamia nuts
50 g of finely chopped pistachio nuts
1 egg yolk some
icing sugar for decoration

Procedure:
In a bowl combine your blueberry jam with the fresh blueberries. Pour this mixture into the pastry shell. Top it with chopped hazelnuts, almonds and macadamia nuts. Brush with egg yolk the side crust and drizzle over the pistachio nuts. Bake the pie for about 20-30 minutes at 180° celsius.



You may also like this recipes:
Mango Blueberry Opera Cake
Chocolate Eclair with Blackberries

Cadbury Chocolate Cookies Fruits & Nuts

Cadbury Chocolate Cookies Fruits & Nuts

I love chocolate! And who doesn't? It's my all time favorite, a solace when I'm grieving and my reward to myself when I'm jubilant.

Our love story has come a long way already considering our rudimentary beginnings. Those childhood penniless days that I sneak out on the kitchen to empty our Ovaltine can of chocolate milk powdered drink. I insist on me being penniless because that was the only chocolate I could devour when my craving arises. But as years go by, my path crossed with local chocolates Chocnut, Cloud 9 then the imported one’s; Hershey's Kisses, M'M multi-colored chocolates, and then there came the Cadbury Fruits n Nut. It was my good old friend who’s now based in California who introduced this to me. If most have their Kitkat moments we had our Cadbury moments.

When I graduated Magna Cum Laude in our university I got this tremendous offer to teach in our college despite my young age and being a complete novice. But hey don’t think I am a nerdy Einstein like know it all person. I was just a normal average student (who loves partying) who was lucky enough to have lazy classmates LOL. (If they could read this they will kill me) Teaching my contemporaries or students that were older than me was not only intimidating but proved to be a very tough one. I have those days that I almost feel like giving up, but my friend (my colleague) and her Cadbury chocolate bars stood by me and cheered me up. Life’s been so great with me. For I may have some trouble that come by from time to time and no Cadbury with me to enjoy with, but I still have a dozen of French chocolate to brace me by. :-) Hehehe In homage to these sweet chocolaty Cadbury moments I concocted up these chocolate cookies. But don’t be deceived, there is no Cadbury choco in this recipe!

This is my contribution to this month's Monthly Mingle hosted by the creator herself, the lovely Meeta of What's for lunch Honey? If you love chocolate and fruits you should check out the round up!

Cadbury Chocolate Cookies Fruits & Nuts

I found this awesome American Cookies recipe by Zabou in a french recipe sharing site Les Foodies and added some of my touch:

220 g of flour 50 g of brown sugar 50 g of white sugar 1 teaspoon of honey 100 g of butter half a sachet of baking powder (that's about a teaspoon) 1 egg 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1 teaspoon of cacao
200 g of chocolate patisserie (chopped in small pieces)
50 g of dried raisins
50 g of almonds

In a bowl melt the butter in a microwave. Then add the honey and egg. Mix them well. In a separate bowl put the all the dry ingredients: flour, brown sugar, white sugar and the baking powder. Mix them together. Add your lemon juice. This is to help you make this cookies chewy and soft. Put the cacao and the melted butter-honey-egg mixture. Mix them together. Fold in your chopped chocolate, raisins and almonds. Put in the fridge and let it rest for about five minutes. Form a small ball and place them on your cookie sheet. Give enough spacing for each cookie. Preheat the oven at 200° celsius and bake it for ten minutes.

I suggest that if you are lucky enough to have Cadbury chocolate at hand, why not try making this cookie recipe with it and tell me how it is :-)

My other cookie recipe:

Tropical Santa Cookies

Apple Multicereal Milk Bread with Streusel Toppings

Apple Milk Bread with Streusel Toppings

One thing I hate so much in the kitchen is wasting food. For whatever reason, I always try to come up with solution to avoid dumping them. When I used to babysit for my nieces and nephew back in Philippines, I remember how often I would try to explain to their young minds that there is so much poverty and hunger in this world everytime they refuse to finish their meal. Of course it doesn't do magic all the time. Sometimes I am resorted into blackmailing them :-).

Anyways, with this thoughts in my head as I meticulously pour the apple purée in the empty gerber bottles for my daughter I realized that I cooked too much. I tried to look everywhere to see if there is still some empty gerber bottle hiding somewhere, but it was in vain. I could very well make some pattisserie with it like "chausson aux pommes" but I already promised my hubby to only bake patisseries only once a week. He is just concern about our calories intake :-). In other words we are getting fatter since I've been hooked up into blogging. So I thought why not milk bread it won't be so bad with some apples on it.

I'll be sending this over to Susan for her weekly Yeastspotting. If you love bread you should check that out :-)

Apple Multicereal Milk Bread with Streusel Toppings

250 g of flour
250 g of Multicereal flour
30 g of sugar
1 teaspoon of dry yeast
10 g of salt
20 cl of milk
3 tablespoons of apple purée
1 egg
50 of melted butter

Toppings :
30 g of butter
30 g of chopped any nuts (walnuts, almonds, etc)
30 g of sugar
30 g of flour

In your working table combine your two flours. Make a whole in the middle put your melted butter, egg, sugar, yeast and half of the milk. Add also the salt but avoid having direct contact with the yeast. Start mixing them with your hands little by little. Add the rest of your milk. Be sure to check if you need to put less or more milk depending on the consistency of your dough. You can also use your bread machine to do this bread by putting all your ingredients except the apple, just ad dit up after the first beep indicating that the dough’s well mixed. Once the dough becomes elastic add your apple purée and continue mixing. Leave it covered and let it rest for about an hour. Grease your loafbread pan and put the dough gently. Let it rise again for another one hour and a half. Preheat the oven at 200° celsius and bake this for about twenty minutes. You can put or not put the streusel depending on your preference. For the streusel toppings mix all the ingredients and half it halfway the cooking time.

I swear this milk bread is great for breakfast!

You can also try my other bread recipes:

Almond Coconut Honey Brioche
French Bread
Mini flute bread

Danish Braid Cranberry Coconut Streusel Toppings

Cranberry Coconut Danish Braid in Streusel Toppings

How sweet is the taste of freedom?

After my self-prescribed one week hibernation in the mountain of alpes due to overblogging diagnosis (zero internet access was the only solution to detox me :-)), I never realised of the jubilant news that was waiting for us when we returned back to the civilization; Ingrid Betancourt, was finally freed.


Her name might be obscure to most of you, but this former colombian senator was kidnapped at the height of her presidential campaign and spent six years of captivity in the jungle of Colombia. Far away from her family and friends. Six years of her life was stolen from her. I hate politics so the reason why I am writing about this has no tinge of political color in it. Just a simple feeling of happiness for someone who has gained back her liberty. Specially when it was taken brutally and inhumanly like that.

How sweet is the taste of freedom? I guess we will never really know until someone takes it away from us. But one thing I am sure of is that a crumb of its sweetness is close to a slice of this freshly baked Danish Braid Cranberry Coconut in Struesel topping. :-)

I hope my bread is not too late fellow DB'ers. By the way a big big thanks to Kellypea and Ben for hosting this challenge! I love it!

Makes 2-1/2 pounds dough
Ingredients For the dough (Detrempe)
1 ounce fresh yeast or 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1/2 cup whole milk
1/3 cup sugar Zest of 1 orange,
finely grated 3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1/2 vanilla bean, split and
scraped 2 large eggs, chilled
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
3-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt

For the butter block (Beurrage)
1/2 pound (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour

DOUGH

Combine yeast and milk in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on low speed. Slowly add sugar, orange zest, cardamom, vanilla extract, vanilla seeds, eggs, and orange juice. Mix well. Change to the dough hook and add the salt with the flour, 1 cup at a time, increasing speed to medium as the flour is incorporated. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes, or until smooth. You may need to add a little more flour if it is sticky. Transfer dough to a lightly floured baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Without a standing mixer: Combine yeast and milk in a bowl with a hand mixer on low speed or a whisk. Add sugar, orange zest, cardamom, vanilla extract, vanilla seeds, eggs, and orange juice and mix well. Sift flour and salt on your working surface and make a fountain. Make sure that the “walls” of your fountain are thick and even. Pour the liquid in the middle of the fountain. With your fingertips, mix the liquid and the flour starting from the middle of the fountain, slowly working towards the edges. When the ingredients have been incorporated start kneading the dough with the heel of your hands until it becomes smooth and easy to work with, around 5 to 7 minutes. You might need to add more flour if the dough is sticky.

BUTTER BLOCK 1. Combine butter and flour in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat on medium speed for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle and then beat for 1 minute more, or until smooth and lump free. Set aside at room temperature. 2. After the detrempe has chilled 30 minutes, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough into a rectangle approximately 18 x 13 inches and ¼ inch thick. The dough may be sticky, so keep dusting it lightly with flour. Spread the butter evenly over the center and right thirds of the dough. Fold the left edge of the detrempe to the right, covering half of the butter. Fold the right third of the rectangle over the center third. The first turn has now been completed. Mark the dough by poking it with your finger to keep track of your turns, or use a sticky and keep a tally. Place the dough on a baking sheet, wrap it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes. 3. Place the dough lengthwise on a floured work surface. The open ends should be to your right and left. Roll the dough into another approximately 13 x 18 inch, ¼-inch-thick rectangle. Again, fold the left third of the rectangle over the center third and the right third over the center third. No additional butter will be added as it is already in the dough. The second turn has now been completed. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes. 4. Roll out, turn, and refrigerate the dough two more times, for a total of four single turns. Make sure you are keeping track of your turns. Refrigerate the dough after the final turn for at least 5 hours or overnight. The Danish dough is now ready to be used. If you will not be using the dough within 24 hours, freeze it. To do this, roll the dough out to about 1 inch in thickness, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and freeze. Defrost the dough slowly in the refrigerator for easiest handling. Danish dough will keep in the freezer for up to 1 month.

Cranberry Coconut FILLING
Makes enough for two braids

Ingredients
1 cup of cranberries 1/2 cup sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 tablespoons of shreaded coconut

Toss the cranberries and sugar in a large bowl. then let it stand for about an hour Melt the butter in a sauté pan over medium heat until slightly nutty in color, about 6 - 8 minutes. Then add the cranberries-sugar mixture, 10 to 15 minutes. Cook it until it becomes thick over low fire.Let it cool.


Streusel toppings:
50 g of butter
50 g of sugar
50 g of flour
50 g of chopped walnuts

Mix all the ingredients and use as toppings for your danish braid.

Assembling:

Spread over some cranberry filling on to your uncooked dough, pour over some pastry cream then sprinkle the top with coconut. Close the dough by making an alternate braid like gest on the dough cuts on the sides. Then top it with your struesel toppings. Bake at preheated oven at 200°celsius for about twenty to thirty minutes.

DANISH BRAID Makes enough for 2 large braids Ingredients 1 recipe Danish Dough (see below) For the egg wash: 1 large egg, plus 1 large egg yolk 1. Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper. On a lightly floured surface, roll the Danish Dough into a 15 x 20-inch rectangle, ¼ inch thick. If the dough seems elastic and shrinks back when rolled, let it rest for a few minutes, then roll again. Place the dough on the baking sheet. 2. Along one long side of the pastry make parallel, 5-inch-long cuts with a knife or rolling pastry wheel, each about 1 inch apart. Repeat on the opposite side, making sure to line up the cuts with those you’ve already made. 3. Spoon the filling you’ve chosen to fill your braid down the center of the rectangle. Starting with the top and bottom “flaps”, fold the top flap down over the filling to cover. Next, fold the bottom “flap” up to cover filling. This helps keep the braid neat and helps to hold in the filling. Now begin folding the cut side strips of dough over the filling, alternating first left, then right, left, right, until finished. Trim any excess dough and tuck in the ends. Egg Wash Whisk together the whole egg and yolk in a bowl and with a pastry brush, lightly coat the braid. Proofing and Baking 1. Spray cooking oil (Pam…) onto a piece of plastic wrap, and place over the braid. Proof at room temperature or, if possible, in a controlled 90 degree F environment for about 2 hours, or until doubled in volume and light to the touch. 2. Near the end of proofing, preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Position a rack in the center of the oven. 3. Bake for 10 minutes, then rotate the pan so that the side of the braid previously in the back of the oven is now in the front. Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees F, and bake about 15-20 minutes more, or until golden brown. Cool and serve the braid either still warm from the oven or at room temperature. The cooled braid can be wrapped airtight and stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 days, or freeze for 1 month.

Crumbly on the outside....

Oozingly delicious from the inside

My other Daring Baker Challenges Recipes:

Yulelog Cake
Lemon Pie

Apricot Almond Ginger Confit Devils Cake

Apricot Almond Ginger Confit Devil's Cake

The Devil wears Prada.

I am pretty sure that most of you have read the book or saw the movie. Not that my post will talk about the plight of this helpless Fashion editor assistant, its just simply that I thought about this book as prepare this chocolate cake and that phone call I got few weeks ago. Well you see few weeks ago I received a call from Elle's magazine wishing to feature an article about my fashion brand and my creations. I was ecstatic naturally. But lots of things happened after that that phonecall that has derailed my thoughts and focus. Its been weeks that I am floating and I haven't started things that I needed to do. It is hard when its the brain that's draining up. I know I needed a break so badly. It won't be long it will be just for few days, enough for me to work on my creations and pending projects.

So for this edition of my Friday Dose of Chocolate, I'll be leaving you with a slice of this delicious chocolate cake and a quote from Arnold Schwarzenegger's famous line; I'll be back!


This will be my entry for this month's Royal Food Joust, hosted by Jen of Leftover Queen.

Apricot, Almonds, Ginger Confit Devil's Cake with hint of chili

4 eggs
120 g of butter
100 g of dried apricot (chopped)
150 g of almonds (chopped)
about 2 tablespoons of ginger confit (chopped)
80 g of flour
150 g of sugar
200 g of dark chocolate

for the chocolate ganache
150 g of dark chocolate
10 cl of fresh cream
half a teaspoon of chili powder

Start by melting the butter and the chocolate. Mix them well until it become homogenous. Beat the eggs with the sugar and flour. Fold in the butter-chocolate mixture and mix them well. Put the chopped almonds, ginger confit and apricot in the cake mixture. Grease a round baking dish of about 20 cm, and pour the cake mixture. Bake in the preheated oven at 180° celsius for 30 to 35 minutes. Let the cake cool before unmolding it.

For the chocolate ganache, melt the chocolate and blend it well. This helps your chocolate becomes brilliant and shiny. Pour your warm fresh cream and mix well. Add your chili powder.

How long can you resist?

My other chocolate recipes:

Chocolate Saucisson
Chocolate Creme Brulée